Continuous application execution between multiple devices

ABSTRACT

In one example, a device includes a display, an interface configured to exchange data with external devices, a control unit configured to execute an application to cause the display to display a current visual representation of the application, determine a current application state of the application, wherein the current application state includes at least a portion of the current visual representation of the application, and means for sending, without user intervention, an indication of the determined current application state from the device to a second, different device via the interface, wherein the indication of the determined current application state comprises information for recreating at least the portion of the current visual representation of the application, wherein the control unit is configured to prevent subsequent indications of the current application state from being sent to the second device in response to an indication that a third device is executing the application.

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/250,770, filed Sep. 30, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 12/903,972, filed Oct. 13, 2010, the entirecontents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to computing devices, such as personalcomputers, tablet computers, laptops, and cellular telephones.

BACKGROUND

Various computing devices are capable of receiving and executingapplications. Mobile devices, for example, such as tablet computers andsmart phones, are becoming increasingly popular, due in part to theability to extend the functionality of such mobile devices through theability to download and execute applications. Some of the applicationsare similar to applications that can be executed by other computingdevices, such as personal computers, workstations, or other suchcomputing devices.

SUMMARY

In one example, a computer-readable storage medium includes instructionsthat, when executed, cause a processor of a computing device to executean application at the first client device, determine a currentapplication state of the application, wherein the current applicationstate includes at least a portion of a current visual representation ofthe application, send, from the first client device to a server device,an indication of the determined current application state, wherein theindication of the determined current application state comprisesinformation for recreating at least the portion of the current visualrepresentation of the application, and, in response to receiving anindication that a different client device is attempting to transmitindications of another application state to the server device, cause thefirst client device to stop transmission of subsequent indications ofthe current application state from being sent to the server device toprevent collisions between application state updates from the firstclient device and application state updates from the different clientdevice.

In another example, a client device includes a display, an interfaceconfigured to exchange data with external devices, a control unitconfigured to execute an application to cause the display to display acurrent visual representation of the application, determine a currentapplication state of the application, wherein the current applicationstate includes at least a portion of the current visual representationof the application, and means for sending an indication of thedetermined current application state from the device to a server devicevia the interface, wherein the indication of the determined currentapplication state comprises information for recreating at least theportion of the current visual representation of the application. Thecontrol unit is configured to stop transmission of subsequentindications of the current application state from being sent to theserver device, in response to an indication that a different clientdevice is attempting to transmit indications of another applicationstate to the server device, to prevent collisions between applicationstate updates from the first client device and application state updatesfrom the different client device.

In another example, a computer-readable storage medium includesinstructions that, when executed, cause a processor of a first clientdevice to execute an application at the first client device, determine acurrent application state of the application, wherein the currentapplication state includes information for recreating at least a portionof a current visual representation of the application, and send anindication of the determined current application state from thecomputing device to a second, different client device, to cause thesecond, different client device to resume execution of the applicationat the current application state by recreating at least the portion ofthe current visual representation of the application as executed by thecomputing device.

In another example, a server device includes one or more external deviceinterfaces configured to receive indications of application states fromtwo or more client devices and to provide the indications of theapplication states to the two or more client devices, wherein theindications of the application states comprise information forrecreating at least portions of current visual representations ofapplications corresponding to the application states, and a control unitconfigured to associate the two or more client devices as a group, toreceive an indication of an application state from a first client deviceof the group, to determine that a second, different client device of thegroup has begun executing the application corresponding to the receivedindication of the application state from the first client device, and toprovide the indication of the application state to the second clientdevice in response to the determination that the second client devicehas begun executing the application.

In another example, a method includes receiving, by a server device, anindication of an application state from a first client device of a groupof two or more associated client devices, wherein the indication of theapplication state comprises information for recreating at least aportion of a current visual representation of an application executed bythe first client device, determining that a second, different clientdevice of the group of two or more associated client devices has begunexecuting the application corresponding to the indication of theapplication state received from the first client device, and providing,by the server device, the indication of the application state receivedfrom the first client device to the second client device in response todetermining that the second client device has begun executing theapplication.

The techniques of this disclosure may provide one or more advantages.For example, the techniques of this disclosure may permit a user tocontinue execution of an application between two or more devices. Thatis, the user may first execute the application with a first device, thenswitch to a second device and continue execution of the applicationusing the second device from a state of the application as executed bythe first device. In this manner, the user may avoid loss of continuitywithin the application, e.g., avoiding loss of the user's position whilereading a web page, e-mail document or other textual document, playing amultimedia file such as a song or video, playing a game, or otherwiseusing an application that can be executed by more than one device.

The details of one or more examples are set forth in the accompanyingdrawings and the description below. Other features, objects, andadvantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and fromthe claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an example system in which amobile device and a computing device may provide and/or receiveindications of application states for various applications via anapplication state server.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating another example system includinga mobile device and a computing device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile device thatprovides application state information to an external device, such as anapplication state server or a remote computing device.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example arrangement ofcomponents of an application state server.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for providingperiodic application state updates to an application state server.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for exchangingapplication state information between a mobile device and a computingdevice via an application state server.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another example method for exchangingapplication state information between a mobile device and a computingdevice via an application state server.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another example method for exchangingapplication state between two devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In general, this disclosure is directed to techniques for allowing auser to switch between two or more devices, such as between a mobiledevice (e.g., a cellular telephone) and a computing device, such thatapplications in use on one device can be resumed on another devicewithout the user losing his or her place in the applications. Forexample, if the user is viewing a particular web page on a mobiledevice, then begins using a computing device and executes a web browser,the mobile device may provide an indication of the uniform resourcelocator (URL) of the web page and a current portion of the web page(e.g., a current paragraph) displayed by the mobile device to thecomputing device. The computing device may receive the indication of thecurrent web page and current portion of the web page being displayed bythe mobile device, then automatically (that is, without userintervention) display the web page and automatically scroll to theportion of the web page that was being displayed by the mobile device.

The mobile device may periodically save application state for activeapplications and upload the application state to an external device,referred to in this disclosure as an application state server. In someexamples, the application state server may be the same device as thecomputing device that resumes the applications. That is, in someexamples, the computing device may implement the functionality of theapplication state server. In some examples, the application state servermay be a separate device in communication with both the mobile deviceand the computing device. In either case, the mobile device mayperiodically send indications of the current application state of one ormore active applications to the application state server.

The mobile device may receive an indication from the application stateserver that another device has begun executing the application. Inresponse to receiving the indication that another device is executingthe application, the mobile device may prevent subsequent indications ofthe current application state from being sent from the mobile device tothe application state server. For example, the mobile device may receivean indication that the computing device has begun execution of theapplication, e.g., from the application state server and/or thecomputing device, and in response, inhibit future application stateupdates for the application. As another example, the mobile device mayreceive an indication from the user that the user is no longer using themobile device to execute the application. The mobile device may theninhibit sending future indications of the current application state ofthe application to the application state server.

In addition, the application state server may provide an indication ofthe current (e.g., most recent) application state to the computingdevice that has begun executing the application. The computing devicemay use the indication of the application state to resume execution ofthe application at the point where the mobile device made the lastapplication state update. In this manner, the user may experience arelatively seamless transition of application execution when movingbetween two devices that are both capable of executing the sameapplication, e.g., a web browser, an e-mail application, a multimediaapplication such as movie player or music player, gaming applications,or other applications.

FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an example system 10 in whichmobile device 16 and computing device 18 may provide and/or receiveindications of application states for various applications. Inparticular, in the example of FIG. 1A, mobile device 16 and computingdevice 18 may be configured to provide application state updates toapplication state server 12 via network 14. For example, while a user isinteracting with an application executed by mobile device 16, mobiledevice 16 may periodically provide application state updates toapplication state server 12. Later, the user may switch to computingdevice 18 to execute the application, and computing device 18 mayretrieve the most recent application state from application state server12, such that computing device 18 may resume execution of theapplication from the most recent application state update. Similarly,computing device 18 may be configured to provide application stateupdates to application state server 12 while executing applications thatmay also be executed by mobile device 16.

In this manner, system 10 may provide a continuous applicationexperience for a user when moving between devices, such as betweenmobile device 16 and computing device 18. Although primarily describedwith respect to one application for purposes of example, it should beunderstood that the techniques of this disclosure may be applied to anynumber of applications executed by mobile device 16 and thensubsequently executed by computing device 18. Moreover, although againdescribed for purposes of example with respect to a mobile device and acomputing device, it should be understood that the techniques of thisdisclosure may apply to any two or more devices capable of executing thesame or similar applications. For example, the devices of system 10 maycorrespond to two or more stationary computing devices, two or moremobile devices, or any combination of stationary and/or mobile devices.Any of the two or more devices may correspond to, for example, apersonal computer, a workstation computer, a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a cellular telephone, a smartphone, a personal digitalassistant, or any other device capable of executing applications.

The techniques of this disclosure may apply to a variety of differentapplications. In general, these techniques may apply to applicationsthat may be executed by mobile device 16 and computing device 18. Forexample, the techniques may apply to web browsers, e-mail readers,document readers, multimedia players such as video and music players,games, or other applications. In general, the applications executed bymobile device 16 may differ from applications executed by computingdevice 18, but may be the same types of applications, e.g., beapplications used for the same purposes. Thus, references to anapplication executed by both mobile device 16 and computing device 18(or any other two devices) should be understood to include distinctapplications executed by mobile device 16 and computing device 18, butthat are executed for the same purpose. For example, a web browserexecuted by mobile device 16 may differ from a web browser executed bycomputing device 18, but may still be considered the same application inthat both of the web browsers are expected to implement hypertexttransfer protocol (HTTP), be capable of retrieving and renderingInternet web sites, and the like.

The state updates provided to application state server 12 may bespecific to an application that can be executed by two or more devices,e.g., mobile device 16 and computing device 18. As one example, mobiledevice 16 and computing device 18 may each execute respective webbrowsers. For example, a user may interact with a web browser of mobiledevice 16 to view a web page at a particular uniform resource locator(URL). In accordance with the techniques of this disclosure, mobiledevice 16 may periodically provide application state updates toapplication state server 12. The application state updates, with respectto the example of a web browser, may include, for example, an indicationof the URL of a web page currently being viewed with the web browser ofmobile device 12. In some examples, the web browser may be capable ofviewing a plurality of URLs, e.g., by opening multiple windows or tabsfor the web browser. Accordingly, the application state updates mayinclude a plurality of URLs.

Furthermore, an indicator of an application state may includeinformation for recreating at least a portion of current visualrepresentation of an application. With respect to the example of a webbrowser, for example, the current visual representation may correspondto a current paragraph, word, sentence, line number, hypertext markuplanguage (HTML) anchor tag, picture, section, link, or other indicationof a current portion of the web page being displayed by the web browser.In this manner, when the user switches to computing device 18 afterusing mobile device 16, computing device 18 may display substantiallythe same information as was previously displayed by mobile device 16.For example, computing device 18 may automatically scroll to a portionof the web page that was displayed by mobile device 16 before the userswitched from mobile device 16 to computing device 18.

As another example, mobile device 16 and computing device 18 may each beconfigured to execute respective e-mail applications. In such anexample, the indication of the application state may describe aparticular e-mail currently displayed by the e-mail application and thecurrent paragraph, line, sentence, or other representation of theposition within the e-mail when the user switched from mobile device 16to computing device 18. Thus mobile device 16 may generate an indicationof an application state indicative of the current e-mail displayed bymobile device 16 and a position within the e-mail currently beingdisplayed for an application state update.

As another example, the application may correspond to a multimediaplayer, such as a music or movie player. In this example, theapplication state may describe a current song or video being played, aswell as a current temporal location within the song or video. Thecurrent temporal location may define the temporal location within themultimedia data that was being played when the application state wasdetermined. Thus, the current visual representation may correspond to astatus bar that visually represents the current temporal location of thesong or video being played. Mobile device 16 may generate an indicationof an application state indicative of the current song or video beingplayed by mobile device 16, as well as a temporal location within thesong/video, for an application state update. In some examples, mobiledevice 16 may also transfer the song or video to application stateserver 12 or directly to computing device 18, assuming that suchtransfer is permitted by applicable copyright laws and regulations.

FIG. 1B is a block diagram illustrating another example system 20including mobile device 22 and computing device 24. In this example,rather than sending indications of application state to a server, as inFIG. 1A, mobile device 22 may send indications of application statedirectly to computing device 24. That is, a user may execute anapplication using mobile device 22 for a period of time. The user maythen begin executing the application on computing device 24.

Computing device 24 may send an indication to mobile device 22 thatcomputing device 24 has begun executing the application and request acurrent application state for the application as executed by mobiledevice 22. After receiving the indication of the current applicationstate from mobile device 22, computing device 24 may resume execution ofthe application at the current application state as received from mobiledevice 22.

Mobile device 22 and computing device 24 establish connection 26 thatcommunicatively couples mobile device 22 and computing device 24. Mobiledevice 22 may be communicatively coupled to computing device 24 in avariety of ways. For example, computing device 24 may include auniversal serial bus (USB) port that allows mobile device 22 to becoupled to computing device 24 by a USB cable, such as a micro-USBcable. The USB cable may be used to charge a battery of mobile device 22in addition to allowing mobile device 22 to communicate with computingdevice 24. As another example, mobile device 22 may be wirelesslycoupled to a wireless switch or wireless router (not shown) of a networkto which computing device 24 is also coupled.

After establishing connection 26, mobile device 22 may send anindication of application state to computing device 24 in a variety ofways. In one example, mobile device 22 may automatically sendindications of one or more application states to computing device 24.That is, mobile device 22 may push application state information tocomputing device 24. In another example, computing device 24 may requestapplication state information from mobile device 22 when computingdevice 24 is coupled to mobile device 22 via connection 26 and when auser executes an application that is also installed (or for which asimilar application is installed) on mobile device 22. That is,computing device 24 may pull application state information from mobiledevice 22. In some examples, mobile device 22 and computing device 24may be configured to push and pull data, respectively.

In some examples, mobile device 22 and computing device 24 may beconfigured to execute respective applications to cause mobile device 22to send application state information to computing device 24. Forexample, the application executed by computing device 24 may recognizewhen mobile device 22 establishes connection 26 with computing device24, and in response, request application state information from mobiledevice 22 for one or more applications capable of being executed by bothcomputing device 24 and mobile device 22. As another example, theapplication executed by mobile device 22 may recognize when connection26 is established and, in response, send application state informationto computing device 24. Mobile device 22 may stop executing theapplication (e.g., may stop playing a song or video) upon sending theapplication state to device 24.

When the techniques of this disclosure are implemented as applicationsthat allow application state information to be exchanged, theapplications that cause application state information exchange betweenmobile device 22 and computing device 24 may provide configurationsettings that allow a user to configure the exchange of applicationstate information. For example, the user may be provided with options tomake the exchange of application state information automatic, present anindication that another device has requested application stateinformation and send the application state information only when theuser responds affirmatively to allow the device to send the applicationstate information, or to completely disable application stateinformation exchange for one or more (or all) applications. In thismanner, the user may enable or disable the exchange of application stateinformation between two devices, such as mobile device 22 and computingdevice 24, at any time. Users may be provided with similar configurationoptions in example system 10 of FIG. 1A.

Although for purposes of example, FIG. 1B is described as mobile device22 providing application update information to computing device 24, itshould be understood that computing device 24 may similarly provideapplication update information to mobile device 22. In this manner, auser may first use computing device 24 to execute an application, andthen subsequently desire to continue execution of the application onmobile device 22. Accordingly, computing device 24 may determine acurrent application state for the application and send the currentapplication state to mobile device 22. The user may then resumeexecution of the application on mobile device 22. Furthermore, thetechniques described with respect to FIG. 1B may be implemented with twoor more similar devices, e.g., two or more mobile devices, two or morestationary computing devices, or any combination of mobile andstationary devices.

Moreover, the techniques described with respect to FIGS. 1A and 1B maybe combined, in some examples. That is, in some examples, a mobiledevice may be configured to provide application state updates to anapplication state server and/or to a computing device, based on variousconfiguration data. For example, for a first application, the mobiledevice may be configured to provide application state informationdirectly to a computing device, while for another application, themobile device may be configured to provide application state informationto an application state server, such as application state server 12 ofFIG. 1A.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example mobile device 30 thatprovides application state information to an external device, such as anapplication state server or a remote computing device. In the example ofFIG. 2, mobile device 30 includes display 32, control unit 34, andexternal device interface 44. Control unit 34 includes statedetermination module 36, state update module 38, timing module 40, andone or more applications 42. Mobile device 30 may correspond to mobiledevice 16 (FIG. 1A) or mobile device 22 (FIG. 1B), and in some examples,may include functionality similar to both mobile device 16 and mobiledevice 22.

Display 32 may correspond to a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen, atouchscreen display, or other display capable of presenting text and/orimages to a user. Display 32 may form at least part of a user interfaceof mobile device 30. When corresponding to a touchscreen, display 32 mayadditionally receive input from a user via the touchscreen, e.g., when auser selects a region of the touchscreen. External device interface 44may correspond to an interface for communicating with an externaldevice. External device interface 44 may correspond to a mini- ormicro-USB port, a network interface card, a wireless network interfacesuch as an interface for connecting to a wireless local area network(WLAN) or a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network, orother interface. In some examples, mobile device 30 may include morethan one external device interface for communication with externaldevices in various ways.

Control unit 34 may include one or more processors or processing unitssuch as, for example, microprocessors, application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs), or other processing units. Control unit 34 mayfurther include a computer-readable storage medium, such as flashmemory, that may store instructions for, e.g., state determinationmodule 36, state update module 38, timing module 40, and applications42. Accordingly, the one or more processing units may execute theinstructions to perform the functions attributed to state determinationmodule 36, state update module 38, timing module 40, and applications42. In some examples, any or all of state determination module 36, stateupdate module 38, timing module 40, and applications 42 may correspondto individual hardware units. Any or all of state determination module36, state update module 38, timing module 40, and applications 42 may befunctionally integrated and/or separated into further modules or units.

Applications 42 may include one or more applications executable bycontrol unit 34 and that can also be executed (or for which functionalanalogs can be executed) by another device. For example, applications 42may include one or more of a web browser, an e-mail client, a game, adocument reader, a spreadsheet program, a text editor, a multimediaplayer such as a video and/or music player, or other applications. Asstated above, instructions for any or all of applications 42 may bestored in a computer-readable storage medium of control unit 34. Theinstructions may be executed by one or more processors or processingunits of control unit 34.

State determination module 36 may be configured to determine anapplication state of one or more of applications 42 while applications42 are executed by control unit 34. Execution of applications 42generally includes receiving input from, e.g., a user, in response towhich applications 42 generate output, e.g., a visual display. A currentapplication state may generally correspond to information regardingexecution of one of applications 42 that is sufficient for causing thesame or a different device executing the application to present at leasta portion of the visual display without receiving the same user input.

As an example, with respect to a web browser application, the webbrowser may receive input in the form of a uniform resource locator(URL) of a desired web page from a user. In addition, the web browsermay receive user input in the form of scrolling to a particular portionof the web page. An example application state for a web browser mayinclude the URL and, in some examples, a portion of the web pagecorresponding to the URL that is currently being displayed as a resultof a sequence of scrolls or other movements as input by a user. That is,state determination module 36 may determine the URL and current positionof the web page corresponding to the URL being displayed by display 32and construct an application state that includes representations of theURL and position of the web page. Thus, another device executing a webbrowser may receive the application state from mobile device 30 viaexternal device interface 44 and direct the web browser to the URL, thenautomatically scroll to the portion of the web page that was beingdisplayed by mobile device 30, based on the application stateinformation received from mobile device 30.

As another example, with respect to an e-mail client application, thee-mail client may receive input in the form of a selected e-maildocument. In addition, the e-mail client may receive user input in theform of scrolling to a particular portion of the e-mail document. Statedetermination module 36 may determine the current e-mail document beingdisplayed by display 32 while control unit 34 executes the e-mailclient, and in some examples, the current portion of the e-mail documentbeing displayed, and construct application state informationrepresentative of the current e-mail document and the current portion ofthe e-mail document being displayed. Thus, another device executing ane-mail client may, assuming the other device has access to the user'se-mail server, receive the application state from mobile device 30 viaexternal device interface 44 and cause the e-mail client to display thesame e-mail document, then automatically scroll to the portion of the3-mail document that was being displayed by mobile device 30, based onthe application state information received from mobile device 30.

In other examples, application state may include other information basedon the particular application being executed by control unit 34. Forexample, gaming applications executed by control unit 34 may haveapplication state that indicates pieces that remain on a playing board,cards that remain in a deck and their order in the deck, tiles thatremain in play and their positions (e.g., for mahjong), scores, timinginformation, or other data for recreating at least a portion of a visualrepresentation of the game. As another example, a document reader mayhave application state that indicates an open document and a portion ofthe document currently being displayed. As yet another example, amultimedia application, such as a video or audio player, may haveapplication state that indicates a song or video being played and acurrent time for the song or video being played. In the example of amultimedia application, the portion of the visual representation maycorrespond to a horizontal scroll bar that corresponds to the currenttemporal position of the song or video.

In some examples, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1B, state determination module36 may determine a current application state for one or more ofapplications 42 executed by control unit 34 upon request from anexternal device. In other examples, state determination module 36 mayperiodically determine a current application state for one or more ofapplications 42 as executed by control unit 34, e.g., in response torequests from state update module 38. State update module 38 may beconfigured to periodically request a current application state forapplications 42 and to provide updates for the applications to anexternal application state server, e.g., as shown in FIG. 1A. In suchexamples, state update module 38 may be configured to periodicallyprovide state updates for one or more of applications 42 to theapplication state server.

State update module 38 may receive indications of current applicationstate for one or more of applications 42 from state determination module36. State update module 38 may then provide the application stateinformation to the application state server. State update module 38 mayfurther provide contextual information for the state updates, such as aunique identifier for mobile device 30 that uniquely identifies mobiledevice 30 to the application state server. State update module 38 mayinteract with timing module 40 to determine a time at which to providestate updates to the application state server. For example, state updatemodule 38 may be configured to provide an application state update to anapplication state server in incremental time periods, e.g., every Xminutes or hours. Accordingly, when timing module 40 indicates that thetime period has expired, state update module 38 may retrieve a currentapplication state from state determination module 36 and send thecurrent application state to the application state server.

In response to an indication from an external device that anothercomputing device has begun executing the application, e.g., a messagefrom an application state server or the computing device itself, stateupdate module 38 may inhibit future application state updates. Forexample, state update module 38 may disable timing module 40, set anupdate status flag to false (where state update module 38 may check theupdate status flag to determine whether to send an application stateupdate to an application state server when timing module 40 expires),stop executing the application, or otherwise prevent future applicationstate updates from being sent from mobile device 30. State update module38 may resume sending application state updates in response to anindication that the external computing device is no longer executing theapplication.

In some examples, mobile device 30 may receive input from a user thatindicates that the user no longer wishes for mobile device 30 to provideapplication state updates to the application state server. In someexamples, mobile device 30 may simply receive an indication to stopsending application state updates, which the sending device may generateand send to mobile device 30 in response to determining that thecomputing device has begun executing one or more applications that werebeing executed by mobile device 30. In any case, state update module 38may generally inhibit application state updates when another device,associated with mobile device 30, has begun executing an application forwhich state update module 38 was generating application state updates.

Although described with respect to the example of a mobile device, otherdevices may include similar components to those of mobile device 30. Forexample, laptop computers, tablet computers, personal computers,workstation computers, or other such computing devices may includecomponents similar to those described with respect to mobile device 30.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example arrangement ofcomponents of application state server 12. In the example of FIG. 3,application state server 12 includes control unit 52 and external deviceinterface 60. External device interface 44 may correspond to aninterface for communicating with an external device. External deviceinterface 44 may correspond to a USB port, a network interface card, awireless network interface such as an interface for connecting to awireless local area network (WLAN), or other interface. In someexamples, application state server 12 may include more than one externaldevice interface for communication with external devices in variousways.

In the example of FIG. 3, control unit 52 includes state update module54, state retrieval module 56, state date 58, and device grouping module62. Control unit 52 may include one or more processors or processingunits such as, for example, microprocessors, ASICs, DSPs, FPGAs, orother processing units. Control unit 52 may further include acomputer-readable storage medium, such as flash memory, that may storeinstructions for, e.g., state update module 54, state retrieval module56, and device grouping module 62. Accordingly, the one or moreprocessing units may execute the instructions to perform the functionsattributed to state update module 54, state retrieval module 56, anddevice grouping module 62. In some examples, any or all of state updatemodule 54, state retrieval module 56, and device grouping module 62 maycorrespond to individual hardware units. Any or all of state updatemodule 54, state retrieval module 56, and device grouping module 62 maybe functionally integrated and/or separated into further modules orunits.

State data 58 may correspond to a database comprising application statesfor applications executed by a variety of different devices. In otherexamples, state data 58 may be organized as a flat file, one or moredata structures, or other organizational schemes. In general, state data58 stores a current application state for an application capable ofbeing executed by any of a number of associated devices. As an example,a group of devices may include a user's personal computer and the user'scellular telephone. State data 58 may store a current application statefor an application (e.g., a web browser, an e-mail client, a game, amultimedia application, etc.) as executed by one of the devices in thegroup such that other devices in the group may retrieve the applicationstate and resume execution of the application, e.g., when a userswitches to one of the other devices in the group and begins executingthe application.

State data 58 may store current application states for a number ofapplications associated with a group of devices. Moreover, state data 58may store current application state for a number of groups of devices.Device grouping module 62 may associate devices to form a group. Anadministrator or other user may provide information for associatingdevices together to form a group. For example, while using a device tobe added to a group, a user may provide login credentials (e.g., ausername and password) to application state server 12 and indicate thatthe device being used to should be added to a group associated with theuser's login credentials. A user may create multiple groups. Each groupmay be associated with one or more applications capable of beingexecuted by any of the devices of the group. Device grouping module 62may store associations between devices within state data 58.

State update module 54 may receive application state updates viaexternal device interface 60 from a device of a group. Upon receiving anapplication state update, state update module 54 may query state data 58to determine a group including the device from which the applicationstate update was received. State update module 54 may then store thecurrent application state for the corresponding application within statedata 58 in association with the group including the device from whichthe update was received.

State retrieval module 56 may receive a request for a currentapplication state for a particular application from a device of aparticular group. In response, state retrieval module 56 may query statedata 58 for the application and for the group including the requestingdevice to retrieve the current application state and provide the currentapplication state to the device that sent the request, via externaldevice interface 60. Moreover, state retrieval module 56 may generateand send a message to a device of the group that sent the current stateupdate to application state server 12 via external device interface 60to cause the device to stop sending application state updates.

In some examples, control unit 52 may implement a token passing schemein which only one device of a group may be given a “token.” The devicewith the token may be granted the right to send application stateupdates. Accordingly, state update module 54 may, upon receipt of anapplication state update, determine whether the device providing theupdate has the token (e.g., whether the device is permitted to provideapplication state updates) and update the current application state onlywhen the device has the token (or is otherwise permitted to update thecurrent application state). Devices of a group other than the devicegranted the token may request the token, in which case the token may beremoved from the current device and passed to the requesting device. Ingeneral, the device with the token may correspond to the devicecurrently being used by a user to execute a particular application.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for providingperiodic application state updates to an application state server.Although described for purposes of example with respect to mobile device30 (FIG. 2), it should be understood that any suitable device may beused to implement and execute the example method of FIG. 4.

Initially, mobile device 30 may begin executing an application (80). Forexample, control unit 34 may begin executing one of applications 42.Control unit 34 may, for example, receive a selection of one ofapplications 42 to begin executing from a user. For example, the usermay interact with a touchscreen of mobile device 30 to select an iconcorresponding to the application, and control unit 34 may receive anindication that the icon has been selected, and in turn, retrieve andbegin executing instructions for the application.

State determination module 36 may then determine a current applicationstate for the executed application (82). For example, for a web browserapplication, state determination module 36 may determine a current webpage URL and a position of the web page being displayed. As anotherexample, for an e-mail application, state determination module 36 maydetermine a current e-mail document being read and a position of thee-mail document being displayed. As another example, for a gamingapplication, state determination module 36 may determine a current stateof the game, e.g., cards in a deck and their order and cards in play andtheir positions (e.g., for a solitaire game), positions of tiles on afield of play (e.g., for mahjong), or other positions andpresence/absence of game pieces. As yet another example, for multimediaapplications, state determination module 36 may determine a currentmultimedia file (e.g., song or video) being played by the multimediaapplication as well as a current temporal location within the multimediadata being played.

State update module 38 may then provide an application state update toan application state server, such as application state server 12 (FIG.1A) (84). In some examples, state update module 38 may provide theapplication state update directly to a device that is able to executethe application being executed by control unit 34. After providing theapplication state update, in the example of FIG. 4, state update module38 may execute timing module 40 (86), e.g., to wait a predeterminedamount of time before providing a subsequent application state update.

While awaiting an indication that the predetermined amount of time hasexpired (90), state update module 38 may check for an indication (e.g.,a message or signal) to stop providing application state updates (88).If no such message has been received (“NO” branch of 88), control unit34 may continue executing timing module 40 (86). If the predeterminedamount of time since the previous application state update has expired(“YES” branch of 90), state determination module 36 may again determinea current application state for the application being executed (82),state update module 38 may provide an application state update to, e.g.,the application state server (84), and then re-initialize timing module40 (86). If the predetermined amount of time has not yet expired (“NO”branch of 90), state update module 38 may continue executing timingmodule 40 (86).

On the other hand, if state update module 38 has received a message tostop sending application state updates (“YES” branch of 88), stateupdate module 38 may inhibit sending future state updates (92). In someexamples, control unit 34 may stop executing the application. Controlunit 34 may alternatively continue to execute the application withoutsending application state updates.

The method of FIG. 4 may be summarized as executing, by a first device,an application, determining a current application state of theapplication, wherein the current application state includes at least aportion of a current visual representation of the application, sending,without user intervention, an indication of the determined currentapplication state from the first device to a second, different device,wherein the indication of the determined current application statecomprises information for recreating at least the portion of the currentvisual representation of the application, and, in response to receivingan indication that a third device is executing the application,preventing subsequent indications of the current application state frombeing sent from the first device to the second device. While describedabove with respect to the example components of mobile device 30described with respect to FIG. 2, it should be understood that otherdevices may perform the method of FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example method for exchangingapplication state information between a mobile device and a computingdevice via an application state server. While described with respect tothe examples of a mobile device and a computing device, it should beunderstood that the method of FIG. 5 may be performed by two or moredevices of various types, e.g., two or more mobile devices, two or morestationary computing devices, and/or any combination of mobile andstationary devices. In some examples, the device corresponding to thecomputing device may additionally perform the functionality attributedto the application state server.

In the example of FIG. 5, a mobile device, e.g., mobile device 16 (FIG.1A), executes an application (100). While executing the application,mobile device 16 periodically sends application state updates thatindicate a current application state to application state server 12(102), which stores the current application state (104). For example,application state server 12 may determine an identifier for mobiledevice 16 and store the received application state in a database inassociation with a group of devices that includes the identifier formobile device 16.

Mobile device 16 may continue to execute the application (100) andperiodically send application state updates to application state server12 (102) while no message to stop sending the updates has been received(“NO” branch of 106). After computing device 18, for example, beginsexecuting the application (or a similar application) (108), computingdevice 18 may request a current application state for the applicationfrom application state server 12 (110). Assuming, as illustrated in theexample, that application state server has stored a current applicationstate for the application, application state server 12 may retrieve thestored application state (112) and send an indication that a new device(in this example, computing device 18) has begun executing theapplication to mobile device 16 (114). Accordingly, mobile device 16 mayinhibit future state updates (116) in response to receiving theindication from application state server 12 (“YES” branch of 106).

Furthermore, application state server 12 may send an indication of thecurrent application state to computing device 18 (118). After receivingthe indication of the current application state (120), computing device18 may resume execution of the application from the point indicated bythe received indication of the application state (122). For example, fora web browser application, computing device 18 may retrieve a web pagefrom a URL indicated by the indicator of the current application state,display the web page, and automatically scroll to a position indicatedby the indicator of the current application state. For an e-mail clientapplication, as another example, computing device 18 may present thee-mail document of the indicator of the application state andautomatically scroll to a position indicated by the application state.For a game application, computing device 18 may recreate the state ofthe game as indicated by the indicator of the application state. For amultimedia application, computing device 18 may load a multimedia datafile (e.g., a song or video) indicated by the current application stateand begin playing the multimedia data file from a temporal locationindicated by the indicator of the application state.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another example method for exchangingapplication state information between a mobile device and a computingdevice via an application state server. In the example of FIG. 6, ratherthan periodically providing indications of application state, mobiledevice 16 provides an indication of the current application state ondemand, e.g., in response to a request from application state server 12.Again, although described with respect to elements of the example ofFIG. 1A, it should be understood that the method of FIG. 6 may beperformed by any suitable devices, e.g., two or more mobile devices, twoor more stationary computing devices, or any combination of mobile andstationary devices.

In the example of FIG. 6, mobile device 16 may execute an application(140) and continue executing the application until receipt of a requestto send the current application state from, e.g., application stateserver 12 (142). At some point during execution of the application,computing device 18 may begin executing the application (144).Accordingly, computing device 18 may request the current applicationstate from application state server 12 (146). In response to the requestfor the current application state, application state server 12 maydetermine a device that is associated with computing device 18 thatcould be executing the application (mobile device 16, in this example).Accordingly, application state server 12 may request the currentapplication state from mobile device 16 (148).

In response to the request for the current application state, mobiledevice 16 may send an indication of the current application state toapplication state server 12 (150). Application state server 12 mayreceive the indication of the current application state (152) and thensend the indication of the current application state to computing device18 (154). After receiving the indication of the current applicationstate (156), computing device 18 may resume execution of the applicationat the current application state (158).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating another example method for exchangingapplication state between two devices, e.g., mobile device 22 andcomputing device 24 (FIG. 1B). In the example method of FIG. 7, mobiledevice 22 and computing device 24 exchange an indication of currentapplication state without the use of an application state server. Whiledescribed for purposes of example with respect to mobile device 22 andcomputing device 24, it should be understood that any two devices mayperform the techniques of FIG. 7, e.g., two or more mobile devices, twoor more stationary computing devices, or any combination thereof.

In the example of FIG. 7, mobile device 22 executes an application (180)and awaits receipt of a request for a current application state (182).At some point during execution of the application by mobile device 22,computing device 24 may begin execution of the application, or mayreceive a request to begin execution of the application, e.g., from auser (184). In response, computing device 18 may send a request for anindication of the current application state as executed by mobile device22 from mobile device 22 (186).

In response to this request, mobile device 22 may send an indication ofthe current application state to computing device 18 (188). Afterreceiving the indication of the current application state from mobiledevice 22 (190), computing device 18 may resume execution of theapplication from the state indicated by the indication of the currentapplication state (192).

The techniques described in this disclosure may be implemented, at leastin part, in hardware, software, firmware or any combination thereof. Forexample, various aspects of the described techniques may be implementedwithin one or more processors, including one or more microprocessors,digital signal processors (DSPs), application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), or any otherequivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry, as well as anycombinations of such components. The term “processor” or “processingcircuitry” may generally refer to any of the foregoing logic circuitry,alone or in combination with other logic circuitry, or any otherequivalent circuitry. A control unit comprising hardware may alsoperform one or more of the techniques of this disclosure.

Such hardware, software, and firmware may be implemented within the samedevice or within separate devices to support the various operations andfunctions described in this disclosure. In addition, any of thedescribed units, modules or components may be implemented together orseparately as discrete but interoperable logic devices. Depiction ofdifferent features as modules or units is intended to highlightdifferent functional aspects and does not necessarily imply that suchmodules or units must be realized by separate hardware or softwarecomponents. Rather, functionality associated with one or more modules orunits may be performed by separate hardware or software components, orintegrated within common or separate hardware or software components.

The techniques described in this disclosure may also be embodied orencoded in a computer-readable medium, such as a computer-readablestorage medium, containing instructions. Instructions embedded orencoded in a computer-readable medium may cause a programmableprocessor, or other processor, to perform the method, e.g., when theinstructions are executed. Computer readable storage media may includerandom access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), programmable readonly memory (PROM), erasable programmable read only memory (EPROM),electronically erasable programmable read only memory (EEPROM), flashmemory, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a cassette, magneticmedia, optical media, or other computer-readable storage media. Itshould be understood that the term “computer-readable storage media”refers to physical storage media, and not signals, carrier waves, orother transient media. In this manner, computer-readable storage mediashould be understood as non-transient, physical media.

Various examples have been described. These and other examples arewithin the scope of the following claims.

1. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, whenexecuted, cause a processor of a first client device to: execute anapplication at the first client device that is communicatively coupledto a second client device; periodically determine a current applicationstate of the application, wherein the current application state includesinformation for recreating at least a portion of a current visualrepresentation of the application; after determining a respectivecurrent application state, send an indication of the respectivedetermined current application state from the first client device to thesecond client device, wherein the indication comprises information forrecreating at least the portion of the current visual representation ofthe application as executed by the first client device; responsive toreceiving an indication that the second client device has begunexecution of the application, stop transmission of subsequentindications of the determined current application states to the secondclient device; and after stopping transmission of the subsequentindications of the determined current application states, continue toexecute the application at the first client device.
 2. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructionsthat cause the processor to send the indication of the respectivedetermined current application state comprise instructions that causethe processor to: determine that the first client device is withincommunication range of a wireless access point; and in response to thedetermination, send the indication of the respective determined currentapplication state to the second client device via the wireless accesspoint.
 3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein theapplication comprises a multimedia application presenting multimediadata, the multimedia data comprising at least one of audio and videodata, and wherein the current application state comprises a temporallocation within the multimedia data that was being played when thecurrent application state was determined.
 4. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 1, wherein the application comprises a webbrowser displaying a web page, and wherein the current application statefurther comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) of the web page beingdisplayed.
 5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 4, whereinthe web browser maintains a plurality of windows, each of the pluralityof windows corresponding to a respective web page, and wherein thecurrent application state comprises URLs for each of the respective webpages for the plurality of windows.
 6. The computer-readable storagemedium of claim 4, wherein the at least portion of the current visualrepresentation comprises a position of the web page being displayed bythe web browser.
 7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1,wherein the application comprises an e-mail application displaying ane-mail document, and wherein the current application state comprises anindication of the displayed e-mail document.
 8. The computer-readablestorage medium of claim 7, wherein the at least portion of the currentvisual representation comprises a position of the e-mail document beingdisplayed by the e-mail application.
 9. The computer-readable storagemedium of claim 1, wherein the instructions that cause the processor tosend the indication of the respective determined current applicationstate comprise instructions that cause the processor to send theindication of the current application state without user intervention.10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the currentapplication state comprises a second application state and wherein amost recently sent indication comprises a second indication associatedwith the second application state, further comprising instructions thatcause the processor to: prior to determining the second applicationstate, determine a first application state and send, to the secondclient device, a first indication of the sent indications, wherein thefirst indication is associated with the first application state; andafter sending the first indication of the sent indications, execute atimer, wherein the instructions that cause the processor to determinethe second application state comprise instructions that cause theprocessor to determine the second application state after expiration ofthe timer.
 11. A method comprising: executing an application at a firstclient device that is communicatively coupled to a second client device;periodically determining a current application state of the application,wherein the current application state includes information forrecreating at least a portion of a current visual representation of theapplication; after determining a respective current application state,sending an indication of the determined current application state fromthe first client device to the second client device, wherein the sentindication of the respective current application state comprisesinformation for recreating at least the portion of the current visualrepresentation of the application as executed by the first clientdevice; responsive to receiving an indication that the second clientdevice has resumed execution of the application, stopping transmissionof subsequent indications of the determined current application statesto the second client device; and after stopping transmission of thesubsequent indications of the determined current application state,continuing to execute the application at the first client device. 12.The method of claim 11, further comprising: determining that the firstclient device is within communication range of a wireless access point;and in response to the determination, sending the indication of therespective determined current application state to the second clientdevice via the wireless access point.
 13. The method of claim 11,wherein the application comprises a multimedia application presentingmultimedia data, the multimedia data comprising at least one of audioand video data, and wherein the current application state comprises atemporal location within the multimedia data that was being played whenthe current application state was determined.
 14. The method of claim11, wherein the application comprises a multimedia applicationpresenting multimedia data, the multimedia data comprising at least oneof audio and video data, and wherein the current application statecomprises a temporal location within the multimedia data that was beingplayed when the current application state was determined.
 15. The methodof claim 11, wherein the application comprises a web browser displayinga web page, and wherein the current application state further comprisesa uniform resource locator (URL) of the web page being displayed. 16.The method of claim 15, wherein the at least portion of the currentvisual representation comprises a position of the web page beingdisplayed by the web browser.
 17. The method of claim 11, whereinsending the indication of the current application state to the secondclient device comprises sending, by the first client device without userintervention, the current application state to the second client device.18. The method of claim 11, further comprising: prior to determining thesecond application state, determining a first application state andsending, to the second client device, a first indication of the sentindications, wherein the first indication is associated with the firstapplication state; and after sending the first indication of the sentindications, executing a timer, wherein determining the secondapplication state comprises determining the second application stateafter expiration of the timer.
 19. A first client device comprising: adisplay; an interface configured to exchange data with external devices;a control unit configured to execute an application to cause the displayto display a current visual representation of the application,periodically determine a current application state of the application,wherein the current application state includes at least a portion of thecurrent visual representation of the application; and means for sending,after the control unit determines a respective current applicationstate, an indication of the respective determined current applicationstate from the device to a second client device via the interface,wherein the indication of the respective determined current applicationstate comprises information for recreating at least the portion of thecurrent visual representation of the application, wherein the controlunit is configured to stop transmission of subsequent indications of thecurrent application state from being sent to the server device, inresponse to an indication that the second client device has begunexecution of the application, and wherein the control unit is configuredto continue to execute the application at the first client device afterstopping transmission of the subsequent indications of the determinedapplication states to the second client device.
 20. The first clientdevice of claim 19, wherein the application comprises a web browserdisplaying a web page, and wherein the current application state furthercomprises a uniform resource locator (URL) of the web page beingdisplayed.